The disclosures herein relate generally to computer systems and more particularly to a user-specific palm rest configuration for portable computers.
As computer systems become more of a commodity, the strengths of brand recognition become paramount. It is known within the industry that the desire for individuality among computer products is an upcoming consumer trend, particularly for portable computer systems. This includes aesthetic as well as functional design considerations.
Similar trends in product individuality have been seen for pagers and cellular phones. Both of these product categories have offerings that allow for customer specific configurations such as configurable housing colors, materials and styles. From a functional standpoint, some computer input device manufacturers are offering different size input devices to accommodate variations in the size of a user""s hands.
In the past, palm rests for keyboards have been used to aesthetically and functionally add individuality to desktop computer systems. Various types of standalone palm rest devices offered by aftermarket sources used in conjunction with keyboards for desktop computers have been suggested. In general, these types of devices are rigid or resilient support structures that are positioned adjacent the lower edge of a keyboard. Due to the nature of these types of devices they do not readily provide aesthetic or functional value for portable computer systems.
Due to the size and mobility requirements of portable computer systems, palm rest devices for these types of computer systems must be designed with these factors in mind. Reticulated palm rests that pivot from a stored to an open position in a portable computer system have been suggested. Palm rests that are integral with the carrying case of a portable computer system have also been suggested. These types of palm rest configurations offer only a limited ability to provide user-specific aesthetic and functional characteristics.
Accordingly, there is a need for a palm rest for portable computers that can be configured to satisfy the aesthetic and functional preferences of a specific user of the portable computer system.
One embodiment, accordingly, provides a palm rest for portable computers that is integral with the enclosure of a portable computer system. The palm rest may be configured to address the aesthetic and functional preferences of a specific user of a portable computer system. To this end, one embodiment provides a portable computer system having an enclosure including a base with a first surface. A keyboard is mounted in the base of the enclosure and has a plurality of keys extending from the first surface. A plurality of support members are attached to the enclosure and at least a portion of one of the plurality of support members extends from the first surface of the enclosure adjacent the keyboard.
Several advantages are achieved by a palm rest for a portable computer system according to the embodiments presented herein. The palm rest may be removable from and repositionable relative to the enclosure of the computer system. The configuration of the palm rest may be customized to compliment the anatomy of a particular user of the computer system. Furthermore, the palm rest may include a resilient or rigid support member having one or more regions of different resiliency and a contoured support surface.